Clear Minds and Tingled Spines
by John Bigboote
Summary: A straightforward guide on how to take back your Takamaki.


"_I am here for your heads. Ow."_

\- The Horseless Headsman

* * *

Panther licked her lips like a cat who'd just opened a fresh can of tuna. The seafood delicacy she was about to dive into was Neuralangwidere, an enormous Shadow that filled half of the ballroom by itself. Considering it looked like a giant toaster masquerading as an octopus, it played the part of an enticing aquatic meal fairly well. And since Panther had come alone to this wing of the Palace, the thrill of battle would be all hers.

The expert cat burglar grasped the middle length of her whip between her hands and snapped it straight to hype herself for the fight. She was ready to get this ugly lumbering Shadow whipped into shape.

**. . .**

Ann's pointy-eared mask was lying abandoned on the floor of the palace. Her whip had been dropped somewhere in the opposite direction. The battle had most decisively concluded and she was crumpled on the ground in a heap of gleaming red curves and skintight pleather creases. Wild masses of black and gray cables were slithering near all of her bright shining parts and making them seem to shine a little less. Most of the low rustling movement was concentrated in the mysterious shade lingering above her neck.

It was Neuralangwidere who was the victor, and it was Neuralangwidere who would be securing the booty. The only thing getting whipped into shape today was Ann's brain.

A hollow steel cylinder was completely engulfing the unmasked Phantom Thief's head and resting over her shoulders. Only the very ends of her blonde pigtails were left hanging out. The meat of her mind was being simmered in its own calcium casing so the memories and emotions melted off like useless fat, purifying the cerebellum into an organic processor that could be easily controlled through binary instructions. Her fingers twitched and her hips shifted as if she were Sleeping Beauty in the throes of a terrible nightmare. Her sense of awareness was lulling between the crossroads of consciousness and vegetation, a place where she was just aware enough to feel her awareness draining away.

While her brain was getting extensively remodeled into an empty socket for Shadow control, Ann's body was left in pristine condition with only one modification. The zipper sitting over the back of her hips had been unfastened by an inch so one of Neuralangwidere's cables could be surgically mounted into the base of her spine. The sketchy positioning Ann had to lie in for the ceremony and the Shadow's general disregard for human empathy made it look like the cord may have been going in somewhere else, but it was actually embedded through her lower back and integrated with her spinal column. The cable sent lightning currents trickling up her vertebrae in routine low-voltage intervals, traveling through each disc like they were nodes on a parallel circuit and using the nerve strands in between as tiny insulation wires.

The system that would soon completely control Ann's body was two-pronged: The current flowing through her augmented tail numbed her nervous system into submission and trained her body to operate on specific electronic signals, while her metal-covered top end received a steady stream of instructions that determined her actions. Her voice was completely silent, or the noises she was making never escaped the soundproof metal sealed around her head. The soundtrack to this to dark scene was composed from the dull hum of computers working and the quiet stretching and squeaking of pleather moving in slow convulsions.

The delinquent was getting defragged. The feline was being formatted for generic use.

When the last hints of weak resistance faded from Ann's body, it signaled the procedure was finished. She slowly lifted herself off the floor and stood up on her red high heels with robotic coordination.

The cylinder remained firmly locked over her head, leaving her with a soulless steel panel for a face. The only things left out to identify her were the tips of her pigtails hanging down from underneath the lid and the window on the front of her suit revealing her breasts.

All trace of individuality was gone. The mess of smaller wires trailing out from the back of her headpiece and the larger single wire coiling in steady pulses from her spine kept her connected to the colossal Shadow at all times, turning her into a fixture on the end of one of its many arms. Electrical waves spread through her spine to energize her muscles and loosen her joints. Machine orders endlessly streamed through her brain to guide every single movement she made. She was nothing more than an Ann-shaped peripheral that was fully integrated with Neuralangwidere and gave it a better ability to combat other Phantom Thieves who might break into the Palace.

Because Ann had been upgraded into a useful appliance (from the Shadow's perspective, at least), her weapon of choice was also given an upgrade. She now brandished a live power cable that crackled with electricity to replace her plain leather whip.

Protected by the rubber in her pink gloves, Ann's marionette body gripped the charged cable between her hands and snapped it into a straight line. She repeated the same gesture she had made toward Neuralangwidere minutes earlier from muscle memory, only now all the playful emotion was gone. Now she was making the gesture to intimidate anyone who risked invading her home.

* * *

_Author's note: How do you guys like my method for declawing the Queen?_


End file.
